From the beginning, the series creators realizes the role of House was critical to the success of the series. Dozens of people auditioned for the role. When Bryan Singer saw Hugh Laurie’s audition tape, he was impressed by Laurie’s deep voice and his beard stubble (Laurie was in the middle of shooting Flight of the Phoenix in Namibia at the time). Singer was also relieved Laurie was American (which he wasn’t - Singer was fooled by Laurie’s pitch perfect accent) because he believed that a Brit could not both do an American accent and pronounce the medical jargon correctly at the same time.

House was imagined from the beginning as being disabled. The original conception of the character had House in a wheelchair. However, the producers soon realized that would severely limit where the character could go (they tried it as an experiment in Needle in a Haystack). They then thought of a scar, but eventually settled on the cane. However, once they settled on a cane, they realized that when the character was walking in a tracking shot, in order for him to stand out properly against the other actors, he would have to be well above average height. Laurie’s 6’2” height worked to his advantage.